Build leadership skills: we want to help build leadership skills in women from the time they are young ladies. This means we are working to take away a last narrative and recognize that as a future leader trait. This starts in the language we use towards them and the opportunities that we place in front of girls and women.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dielle Charon.
Dielle Charon, MSW, is a certified life coach and 7 figure sales expert for WOC Coaches. She is the host of the Black, Banked, and Booked Out Podcast and runs two sales programs: Five Figure Freedom and Six Figure Liberation.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I was a social worker at Duke working 9–5 commuting two hours each way and struggling to pay my bills. I had a friend who sent me a podcast episode where they talked about being a business coach. I had never heard of this before, but I knew it was something I would be good at. I decided to start my side hustle as a coach and worked part-time hours on my business after my 9–5. I would come home from work and then dive into serving my clients the best that I could.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Since I started my career, I have gone through a lot of different focuses in my business. At the start, I was a side hustler so I focused on helping other side hustlers. I would document my 2 hour commute each way, and I’d have stories with me getting ready to go to this 9–5. I would come home and get to coaching. I think people really relate to seeing this honesty of someone who knows what it’s like to be that side hustler with a dream to go full time. Today, this helps me stand out with my clients because I have been there and I have been here with a seven figure company.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake I made was trying to do a ton of social media platforms. I thought I needed to do Facebook groups, Linkedn, instagram. I then realized I was going to focus on one platform and get really good at that. Today, I have still stuck to that same one platform and email marketing. I’m about to add in a YouTube channel as well, but Instagram has remained my main channel.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My 9–5 was my biggest investor financially in this business. I was really good at seeing it as that. I didn’t bring negative energy to the 9–5, but rather showed up and did it well then left to go build the business of my dreams.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“Focus on your movement not your next launch or sales call”
Building a movement is more sustainable, long lasting and converting. You’re able to sell any offer at any price.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I believe that I have. From the business alone being successful, this is changing other women’s lives with the coaching and the businesses that they are able to build from it. I also hire an incredible team who are building their businesses too.
My newest project is starting my non-profit that will provide healthcare access to women of color. We are making an impact here!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I think that women can sometimes be afraid to break traditional roles that they see for women. Maybe they haven’t seen another female founder and they are nervous to become that. Maybe they see founders in a certain light that they think would come across bossy or that they don’t have those traits. Founders can be a lot of different things. Founders can be introverts. Founders can be outgoing. Founders can be playful or moms or side hustlers. There is no limit to this and I think women can get stuck in this idea sometimes.
Can you share with our readers what you are doing to help empower women to become founders?
I’m on a mission to coach women through this process of being a founder with a goal of 100 women becoming millionaires. I coach them through those blocks surrounding money, surrounding their identity, as well as the business side of sales and launching. We’re empowering women to go for it so that young women see more woman founders around them.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
More women should become founders because there are powerful ideas and visions and movements inside of so many women. Women have a special gift of being very intuitive and caring for others. This can cause so many powerful businesses to be formed and I’m excited to see what is founded by women in the next decade!
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.
- Build leadership skills: we want to help build leadership skills in women from the time they are young ladies. This means we are working to take away a last narrative and recognize that as a future leader trait. This starts in the language we use towards them and the opportunities that we place in front of girls and women.
- Break down barriers: We want to make sure women know that they can do this. For example, moms often think there is no way that they can be a founder and a mol. Let’s showcase powerful moms with strong businesses large and small. Being a founder doesn’t mean you need a billion dollar company, but instead, being a founder means you can create it in the way it works best for you.
- Have examples of other founders in the mainstream: Can you name a big female founder? I can name a lot of men like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and more. What are the female names we can put out into the mainstream so that this becomes a common visualization of what a founder is?
- Put women in leadership roles from a young age. As girls are in school or at a young age, we can make sure we are letting them try on leadership and vision. Have them lead the class, or develop a project of their choice. We want them to see what it feels like to be that leader and to know people believe that they can.
- Encourage other women who have an idea. If we hear other women talk about a vision of theirs, encourage them! Don’t laugh it off or not pay attention to it. Encourage them to pursue it and even bounce ideas off of it with her.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I believe I’m building this movement. I have a community of hundreds of women of color who are being coached through starting their business. We coach in mindset around business, sales skills, and so much more. I didn’t have a place that I felt like I could go to when starting my business for advice that had people that looked like me. Just like it’s important for women to see other female founders, it’s important for women of color to have that same thing. I’m excited to see where this movement goes.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Oprah Winfrey has always been someone I look up to. If you ever catch me on zoom or an Instagram live, you’ll see I have a photo of her behind me in my office. She’s an incredible example of a strong, business savvy woman who made it her mission to give back along the way of her success.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Make consistent sales even on part time hours inside of Dielle Charon’s lifetime program, Five Figure Freedom. Get our free sales training to get started: www.diellecharon.com/free-training
www.Instagram.com/diellecharon
Five Figure Freedom: www.diellecharon.com/freedom
Six Figure Liberation: www.diellecharon.com/mastermind
Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-banked-booked-out-as-an- online-coach/id1434583342
Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HYeBRQsL6bVPqivJHmPsu?si=wYN- P4FIRaia2gHb0uf3gA
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Dielle Charon: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.